The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait

Traces the history of the Jews in Germany from their first settlements on the Rhine in the fourth century to the Holocaust

A rich, often-forgotten culture springs to life in this panoramic, popularly written history. The first German Jewish settlement occurred in the fourth century A.D. in the Rhine valley, where Jews became winegrowers and craftspeople. Over the next 1500 years, German Jews struggled against endemic anti-Semitism; confined in ghettos until their emancipation in 1871, they created self-governing communities. Gay ( Jews in America ) illuminates her subjects' robust daily lives, their religious institutions and their activities as cattle traders, manufacturers, artists, scientists and railroad builders. German Jewry's hope of integration into the larger society ended when the short-lived dream of the Weimar Republic turned into the nightmare of Nazi genocide. Today, Gay writes, the remaining Jews of Germany live "on an edge, in exile." Some 300 superb illustrations and excerpts from period writings amplify this moving narrative. History Book Club selection.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The history of Jews in Germany begins with the third century A.D., when a settlement at Cologne was paying taxes to the Emperor Constantine. It ends in 1943, the year Hitler declared the country ``Judenrein''--free of Jews. By then, 170,000--out of a community of half a million--had perished in the camps. The rest had emigrated. This fascinating account by Gay (Jews in America, 1965) covers not only the tragedies leading up to the ultimate one, but the triumphs of nearly two millennia. Above all, Gay describes the strategies of day-to-day survival for rich and for poor, Prussians and Alsatians, city and country folk, men and women--making dozens of useful distinctions overlooked in our standard simple notion of what it meant to be a German Jew. Yes, the Lateran Council in 1215 required that Jews wear distinctive headgear. But at the same time, the legends of King Arthur were circulating in rhymed Yiddish couplets. Yes, a few Jews were financial advisers to dukes and princes and, later, stunningly successful capitalists. But most lived in rural poverty as late as the 19th century, when 120,000 emigrated to the US. Gay's text is easy to follow, and the copious illustrations (277 b&w; ten color) include woodcuts, engravings, photographs of forgotten ancestors, and facsimile pages of historic documents. Almost every page offers some intriguing tidbit. A Jewish envoy of Charlemagne brought a white elephant back to Aachen from the Baghdad court of Caliph Haroun el Rashid. Twelve thousand Jewish soldiers fought and died for the Kaiser during WW I. A perfect bar mitzvah gift--and, one hopes, of interest to non-Jews too--Gay's book rescues a long and variegated history from the dark shadow of recent events. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Gay has produced a highly readable and most informative popular history of Germany's Jews. The narrative extends from the emperor Constantine's decree in 321 C.E. that Jews could be called to the Curia of Cologne to the last shipment of Jewish armament workers from Berlin to Auschwitz on February 27, 1943. While the book does not neglect the devastation of the Holocaust nor the abuse German Jews endured from medieval times, it is more a celebration than a lamentation. Gay assumes very little knowledge of Judaism on the reader's part, explaining both the Sabbath and Passover, but she also delineates in some detail the differences between the rabbinical seminaries in 19th-century Germany. Scholars may find small errors (e.g., Germany was no longer divided into more than 300 states after 1815), but the well-balanced text accompanied by lavish illustrations and passages from a wide variety of highly pertinent documents will appeal to virtually anyone with an interest in the European past. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
- Robert W. Frizzell, Hendrix Coll. Lib., Conway, Ark.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.